CFL or HID? HELP?

been posting lots of threads and noone has realy answered my questions . my last two plants died from what i think was over heat because i have a 400 watt dual spectrum light and noway to exhaust the air out of my airing cuboard, so didnt no weather to buy a bigger fan to blow directly onto the light or just switch to a CFL bulb? realy need some help.

watt by watt, you're going to get about the same heat, 400 watts of light is also 400 watts of heat
that said, cfl's can be a bit more forgiving for new growers
you'll get a hotter spot with HPS, with cfl's it's more spread out
you can also start smaller with cfl's, then add more until you reach the heat limit, and it's a cheap way to get started

IMO, use the CFLs for veg, etc, and bring in the HPS for some extra power during flowering. But either way, you're going to need some way to get some air flow in there. The hot-spots and dead-spots in the air are suffocating your plants.

Sounds like you have a good light you need to exhaust the heat for it. LED or maybe CFL will be the only way for you to grow there.

Doesn't matter what lights you have if you're not providing proper ventilation you will continue to kill your plants. Time to cut some holes or leave the door open. If you leave the door open you will have to be vigilant about opening and closing at the proper time for flowering to occur or that the grow light is the only light and can be timed.

I'd highly recommend an in-line fan and some ducting, you can usually get this done with 40 bucks. You don't need anything too fancy, just an exhaust and a natural intake toward the bottom somewhere. As snowbody said, make sure there no light getting in your natural intake during dark periods!